Fair Game (Alpha & Omega #3)(35)
Author: Patricia Briggs

"Some of the symbols are done wrong, and a couple of them are complete nonsense." The witch’s voice was laced with contempt. "Sally’s been gone since the late eighties. Maybe someone copied them wrong. A real witch would have been able to feel that they were off, and could have fine-tuned them on the spot. So someone’s playing make-believe witch." Caitlin spoke as if the boy’s life were less than nothing, that the worst thing the person carving on Jacob Mott had done was to get the symbols wrong.

"Tell us about Sally Reilly," Anna suggested. "If she’s dead, what does she have to do with this?"

The witch set her jaw. "We don’t talk to outsiders about her."

Brother Wolf gave her a little more fang to look at.

She swallowed.

"If it makes you feel better," Anna murmured, "we do know some witches who will tell us what we want to know."

"Fine," said Caitlin. "Sally Reilly figured out a way to let mundane people use our spells. If someone paid her enough, she’d teach them how to write the symbols. She’d give them a charm that, if they wore it while they worked the magic – usually only one specific spell – behaved for them as if they were a real witch. Like playing a tape recorder instead of a violin, she liked to say. It’s been a long time since she was killed, and mostly people have lost either the symbols or the charms that allowed them to use the spell. This one was done wrong. It might have been drawn that way on purpose, though Sally had the reputation for delivering what she said she would. Probably they thought they had it memorized."

Caitlin smiled maliciously. "Spells don’t like the wrong people using them; they tend to fight back when they can. Maybe in a couple of decades it will be wrong enough that they’ll be cutting into someone and it will kill them all." Then she looked at Charles and stiffened. "I’m telling the truth," she said, sounding a little hysterical. "I’m telling the truth."

Muscles flexed in Brother Wolf’s back and Anna thought it might be a good idea to get him off the witch before Caitlin really ticked him off – though part of her was happy to see that he was involved in the hunt again.

"She’s cooperating, Charles," Anna told him. "Let’s let her up before you scare her to death."

The werewolf snarled at Anna.

"Really," she told him, tapping him on the nose. "It’s enough already. You aren’t a cat. No playing with something you aren’t going to eat." It wasn’t the words she hoped to persuade him with; it was the calming touch.

Brother Wolf stepped almost delicately off the witch and watched with yellow eyes as the woman scrambled untidily to her feet.

"Better?" Anna asked, and then, without waiting for her to respond, continued with another question. "How do you know it’s a she? The one who is trying to be a witch?"

Caitlin straightened her hair with shaky hands. "Witches strong enough to do this are women."

"You just said that whoever put these symbols on the boy wasn’t a witch."

"Did I?"

Brother Wolf growled.

"I really wouldn’t push him much more," Anna advised. "He’s not very happy with you right now." Brother Wolf gave Anna an amused look and then went back to being scary.

The witch snorted archly. She reached out to touch Jacob’s body again and stopped when Brother Wolf took a step closer, his eyes on her hand. She pulled it back and answered Anna’s question. "Anyone could have drawn this and made it work. There’s no reason but habit to assume it was a woman. I suppose that the rape means it was probably a man, doesn’t it?"

"And it did work, even though some of the symbols are wrong?" It was Heuter who asked. Anna had been so focused on the witch and Brother Wolf that she had almost forgotten the others in the room.

"I can feel that it did," Caitlin said. "Not as well as if the symbols had been inscribed correctly, but yes."

"Which symbols are wrong? How would you have done this better?" Heuter’s voice was a little too eager.

Caitlin gave him a cool gaze. She did psycho suburban housewife about as well as Anna had ever seen it done. "I am not here to instruct the FBI in witchcraft."

Leslie cleared her throat. "I’m Special Agent Fisher of the FBI. He’s Agent Heuter of Cantrip."

"Cantrip," Caitlin snorted contemptuously. She took a card out of her purse and handed it to him. "If you have questions, you can call me at this number. But I’m not Sally Reilly, Agent Heuter. I don’t intend to disappear, so I probably won’t help you at all. And I’ll charge you a lot for not doing so."

Brother Wolf sneezed, but Anna wasn’t about to laugh because the witch was stepping toward the boy’s body again.

"Is there anything else we should know about this?" asked Anna.

Caitlin looked at the table. "The sex isn’t part of the ritual." She pursed her lips. "I don’t know if that’s useful."

"The killer keeps the victims alive for a while," Leslie said. "Seven days, usually. Sometimes a few more or less. Is that important?"

Caitlin frowned. "That’s probably why the magic functioned, even though he screwed up. He cut the symbols in and left them to work – like a Crock-Pot, you know? Can’t cook very fast at a low temperature, but give it enough time and it gets the job done." She huffed. "Maybe the sex is because he got bored waiting. If we’re done here, I’d like to go. I have an appointment in half an hour."

Leslie handed her a card. "If you think of anything more, please call me."

"Sure," Caitlin said. Then she turned to Anna. "I’m going to tell Isaac what your wolf did to me." She smiled archly. "He’s not going to be pleased with you."

"Tell him I’ll buy him dinner at The Irish Wolfhound to make up for the offense," Anna suggested, holding the door open.

Caitlin looked disappointed at Anna’s lack of reaction. "He’s the Alpha of the Olde Towne Pack, and he owes me. You’ll be sorry."

"You’re going to be late for your appointment if you don’t hurry," Anna told her.

The witch scowled, turned on her heel, and marched out the door. Before she was out of sight, Dr. Fuller had the boy’s body back flat on the table and covered protectively. "That…" He sputtered a little, trying to keep his voice down.

"There are reasons we don’t like witches much," Anna told him, when she was sure Caitlin was well out of earshot. "I know it’s upsetting. But Jacob’s killer has another victim right now. She’s probably alive. And something the witch told us might help us find Lizzie Beauclaire."